Crown: Saboteur nearly crippled Quebec’s power grid
ST-JEROME, Que. — Normand Dubé is a pilot, an inventor and, as described in a court decision, a “particularly ingenious man.” But a Crown prosecutor argued Wednesday that Dubé deserves the maximum sentence for using that intellect in 2014 to create havoc, nearly crippling HydroQuébec’s power grid in an act of sabotage.
Prosecutor Steve Baribeau called for an exemplary sentence for the man described in local media as a “pilot to the stars” for his past life transporting wellknown Quebec entertainers.
He said he wants Dubé, 56, to serve 10 years for what he described as an unprecedented attack.
“The lines targeted in those attacks were the jugular and the spinal column of the HydroQuébec hydroelectric network,” Baribeau told the court.
Dubé was found guilty in September on three counts of mischief after he used a small plane to shut down transmission lines serving a wide swath of southwestern Quebec.
The method used to create a short-circuit in the Dec. 4, 2014, attack cannot be reported under a publication ban imposed in the interest of national security.
Much of the trial took place with the public barred, and the decision finding Dubé guilty in September is partially redacted.
At trial, Dubé denied the allegations and argued he could not have mounted the attacks.
But the Crown said Dubé carried a grudge against HydroQuébec stemming from a dispute over work done by the utility on land he owned in Saint-Anne-desPlaines, Que. Dubé also blamed the utility for his tax problems, Baribeau said.